I had door sensors paired with my SmartThings hub for literally years. The other day, the devices went offline. I’ve tried to delete and re-pair the devices to no avail. The devices are just not seen.
Hub - v2, firmware 000.057.00014
Door Sensor - STS-MLT-250
Things I’ve tried
Remove and install a new battery in the sensor while holding the reset button. The LED went red, then blinked blue twice every few seconds. I then tried to add the device to the app. I tried both “Scan Nearby” and “Add Partner devices,” but neither worked
I tried loading the Zigbee Contact driver from the SmartThings Driver site, then repeated the above again.
Select the time period and confirm - In this step, please select “Until turned off”, once the team finishes, we’ll let you know so you can disable it again.
I have noticed issues this week after the FW update to my V2 hub .57.14 and the update to the iOS App 1.7.33:
One of my SmartThings Motion Sensors is not reporting motion and temp regularly (once every few hours instead of every 10 min like it use to). I have 2 identical motion sensors. One had gone offline with a dead battery this week and the other was very low. I replaced the one that was low and it came back online with a new battery like normal. The one that was dead and went offline would not reconnect after installing a new battery. I first swapped batteries with the other sensor to make sure it wasn’t a bad battery and it would still not come online. The green lights flashed on the sensor like it had reconnected but it still showed offline in the app. Next step was to remove the sensor with the app and try to add it again. It did not find it with the first couple of attempts but eventually did add as a new sensor but this is where the problem with not reporting motion and temp started. Since I have rebooted the hub a couple times, removed/added the sensor a couple times and even deleted and reinstalled the app. None of those mattered. The only difference I notice is in the device name from the advanced UI. The sensor that is working has Device Name “Motion Sensor” and the one that is not working has Device Name “motion-temp-battery”. Both have Device Profile “motion-temp-battery”. Device name is provided by the device when added and cannot be edited, like Device Label. Device Driver is the stock Smartthings Zigbee Motion Sensor driver.
The other problem I see is with the app not updating status, or updating after a long delay, in the favorites tiles. I’ve noticed this with my refrigerator door open indicator and motion sensors. If I look at history or open the device I can see the status was updated there without delay.
I moved your post to this thread since it seems they might be related.
So, you still have one of the motion sensors working without issues, right? Please share the following info:
Support access to your account:
Confirm the email account registered in the forum is the same one you use for SmartThings. If not, please share it with me over DM
Select the time period and confirm - In this step, please select “Until turned off”, once the team finishes, we’ll let you know so you can disable it again.
That you. Yes, my other Motion Sensor is still working fine and reconnected immediately after I replaced the battery. The other was in an offline state for a couple days with a dead battery and did not come back online after replacing the battery.
Yes, my email here is the same as my account and Account Data Access is enabled.
done
done
4 - 7. Logging complete. Tried to add new deviceat ~22:55 6/27/25. The working device name is " Motion Sensor Front". I have not been able to get the other sensor to connect today. It flashes green three times like it is pairing but the app eventually times out saying “something went wrong”
edit: I found a possible workaround to get the sensor connected but it still does not function as it should, If I force kill the app shortly after the green light flashes 3 times the sensor shows up in the device list. The name of the sensor is Motion Sensor Kitchen".
My devices are acting the same as this. One motion detector and two multifunction switches, all original Samsung sensors. I am not sure the protocol with this community but how do I lodge a fault so that the next hub update fixes what it broke?
My email is the same
I enabled Account Data Access
I reset the sensor and tried adding the Multipurpose Sensor STS-MLT-250 via “Search Nearby” at 8:42am (eastern) and the scan ended at 8:43a, and did not find the sensor.
I then tried adding the sensor from “Partner Devices” and selected SmartThings, Multipurpose Sensor, STS-MLT. My phone displayed reset instructions which I followed but the screen never responded.
The engineering team checked the logs from your joining attempt and they noticed the response expected in different stages of the joining process didn’t come through, so they mentioned you should try to join the device while it’s closer to the hub and then move it back to its original position to avoid it failing due to interference.
I have tried it with the sensor sitting next to the hub and get the same results. The sensor green lights flash like it connecting but the app still times out and doesn’t complete the connection.
Over the last 2 days each device rejoined the network. At one stage I had about 8 devices offline then it got down to only the original smartthings multisensors and motion detectors and then last night they came back. I am not sure why but I suspect it wasn’t something at my end. Thanks for the help so fingers-crossed they stay up and running
New log created. At 6:27PM EDT I removed the device (had been renamed to Smartthings Motion Sensor and it was only reporting temp but not motion) and attempted to add a new device with the app via “Partner devices:Smartthings:Motion Sensor: Motion Sensor (STS-IRM&Others)”. The sensor light only flashed blue and the app eventually timed out with the error code: 34-302.
Hi, @rda2w
The previous attempt was reviewed by the engineering team and they notice still lack of response from the device so there was a timeout that caused the failure, but they also saw some successful installations on June 27th, which I guess was the one where “motion” wasn’t reported.
I’ll tell them about this new attempt to see if they observe the same lack of response but I’m guessing that since at some point the device does get connected, you could keep trying but with the driver logs opened to capture any event in case it gets connected and we can see why the motion event isn’t being reported (during installation, all the configurations for the event reports is set, that’s why it’s important).
I mean these steps
I dumped another log file that has failed motion detections starting around 9:15PM EDT. I was able to get the motion connected again by exiting the app add device screen immediately after the green lights flashed on the motion sensor. The device in question is named “Smartthings Motion Sensor” and has device ID 49094717-82ce-4d3f-a161-b6e7db1c4af8.
I tried again to pair the multipurpose sensor with it next to the hub. I tried at 9:28 a.m. via “Scan Nearby” and then again via “Add Partner Device” with no luck.
I then force stopped the SmartThings app and cleared the cache and data. I tried to pair again in both ways and had no luck
Just guessing here based on what I’m seeing. I’m wondering if this is only a problem with the legacy Zigbee sensors? My motion sensor is ~2018 vintage Samsung SmartThings Zigbee sensor and is not adding properly either. @Techneck28 While trying to add your multipurpose sensor does it ever go from flashing blue to flashing green 3 times? If I remove the battery and hold down the reset button while inserting the battery, maybe half the time I get the 3 green flashes prior to the app timing out. Now, if I exit the add device screen by clicking the X at the top of the screen a few seconds after the third green flash, about 50% of the time it will add the sensor. However the sensor is never in a good state after it is added. The sensor does not send updates after each event and is only report temp sporadically. To me, it seems like the sensor is trying to connect but it, or driver, is not being configured correctly which is why it times out. By exiting the add mid-stream, it seems like it leaves the partially configured sensor connected and if I let the app time out it probably recognizes an error and removes the sensor prior to timing out.
Hi, @rda2w
You have only two devices of the same model, right?
The engineering team mentioned that you need to make sure that you reset the device properly (it seems the led indicator should be blue). If so, and the device remains unable to join, it could indicate that the device is faulty since even when it is discovered, it can’t go through the configuration process properly.
Another test could be deleting the working device since it’s the same model, if it connects again correctly, the issue is the other device.